Central States Conference

     I just returned yesterday from Grand Rapids, MI where the Central States Rotary Youth Exchange Conference was held and it was wonderful. Central States is a collection of Rotary districts - or as I like to call it, a super district - that all work together to coordinate Youth Exchange. There are tons of benefits including an increased "buying power" of sorts such that we exchange with 43 countries, a distribution of labor which makes each coordinator responsible for about a dozen countries each, and most importantly a massive conference of nearly 500 exchange students at various stages of their exchange. No other district or super district in the world has something quite like our conference.

     Getting to meet more inbounds, particularly the gals from Indonesia (special shoutout to Cayla from Yogyakarta for giving me tons of helpful information on Yogya and just being super nice) was excellent and served to answer plenty of questions. I also had the opportunity to meet the other outbounds who will also be going to Indonesia from Central States, which I believe constitutes about half of all US originating Indonesian inbounds. Perhaps most important, however, was talking with all of the rebounds: the ones who know it best. I first met Sam, a rebound from Jakarta, Indonesia whose real home is Racine. He was an absolute wealth of knowledge and will probably continue to be so until about 14 months from now when I no longer have any exchange questions. Daisy, a rebound who actually spent her year in Yogyakarta, was particularly helpful at covering some more detailed questions about day to day life.

     Beyond all of this conversing were the epic dances that took place all three nights we were there. With very few kids dating anyone there (I say very few only because I'm certain someone somewhere in that vast collection of kids was breaking one of the D's) and most just out to have a good time with no nonsense, lots of kids were actually dancing. Hardly any of the dirty, annoying, American grinding that burns our eyes at homecoming dances. We were just dancing, even if you were awful like most of the Thai kids, you were dancing. It was a great time. Particularly noteworthy was McKim, an outbound from my district, 6270, going to Thailand, who could flail his limbs in a fashion that was equally terrifying because it looked like he was seizing and about to pass out, and amazing because he didn't look completely stupid and was actually doing it all to the rhythm of the music.

     On Saturday night, after the evening's dancing, everyone in our dorm went to the basement and we all had an after party of sorts. We were mostly seperate by our districts, there were probably five in the whole dorm, but as time passed, we began mingling a bit. Around 2am, we grabbed some sheets and donned togas, as it is district 6270's tradition to make the event into a toga party. When we were urged off to bed, we all proceeded to remain awake. For McKim, Joe, and I, along with a handful of girls, we would remain awake until about 9am on the bus ride home. 

     The most difficult part about the trip came on this bus ride home. Saying goodbye to individuals was certainly hard. For McKim and Sam, both of whom I've spent less than ten days physically being with, it was particularly hard. This may have been the last time we see each other for an entire year if we are unable to coordinate a last minute get-together before McKim is off on 5 August. But worst of all was the realization that this was the last time seeing everyone like this. For the past three conferences, pretty much the only things we have done for RYE so far, all of the outbounds were always there together. We have always been learning and talking and just being together, even if we didn't all necessarily hang together all the time. Next time each of us goes to something for our exchange, it will be an airport without any other district 6270 outbounds. To any of you guys reading this: best of luck to you in you new country, I already miss you and we're not even gone.

     After everything that has happened these past four days, I am ready to leave right now. I couldn't be more excited and feel more prepared than I am right this instant. I'm writing this after just getting off of work and while I was there alone, our sole customer began talking to me. Once I mentioned how I will be going to Indonesia next year we began chatting about it because he had exchanged to Spain in his senior year at UW-Madison. We talked for about an hour and a half until another customer came in, who then joined us in discussing something about healthcare and economics. Randomly conversing with other exchange students, even those who exchanged several years ago, is a beautiful and heart-warming thing that I look forward to, amongst so many other things, in the year, and years to come.